On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 9:50 AM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > > For me, the question that defines this GOP race is why there are 16 > declared candidates. Without the fragmentation of 16 candidates, it's quite > possible that Trump would not be a front runner, and if he is not a front > runner he may well lose interesting in continuing to campaign. > > So: why Rick Santorum? Santorum last won an election 15 years ago and he > has spent the time since appealing to only a small sliver of the > electorate. My guess is he runs because there is money in it for him. > Whether it is just to build his brand for post-campaign economic > opportunities or there is some way he can charge expenses for his campaign > in a way he comes out loaded with cash, a futile campaign for him is still > lucrative for him to pursue. And he has a billionaire backer keeping him in > the race. What's true for Santorum is true for at least 8 or 9 other > candidates. Running for president has become a money making opportunity in > ways it hasn't in the past. > > My guess is that Trump is following the same opportunity. If he wanted to > self-finance, he would borrow against his assets, not liquidate them. At > some point, if he started winning some primary races, he would have to > borrow larger sums without knowing how or where he would get the cash to > pay the loans back. In a general election race it would hang over his head > as the media would report on the size of the debt with the question of how > he could come up with that cash while in office. >
I agree with your main point. Most of the clowns in the GOP Primary are not really trying to run for President. Some (like Bernie on the Dem side) genuinely want to raise points of principle that otherwise might get ignored. Most though are promoting themselves (I am most familiar with Ben Carson, who has zero chance of getting the nomination, and knows it, but allows himself to be used by the GOP to give themselves some diversity cred to hike up his own book sales and speaking fees). Rubio of course is just running for the Vice President Nom (a race he probably already has locked up). As I say, I think Trump is probably just trying to get cheap (at this point) PR and brand enhancement. I don't think we will ever see him dig too deeply into his own money, or borrow much against his own capital. NPR's point was that most prudent business people (not sure if that description applies to Trump) would never put their own assets in any form on the line for a presidential election unless winning was a much more certain proposition than it is likely to be for Trump. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
